Cepep can act on Moonilal

THE Community-based Environmental Protection and Enhancement Programme Company (Cepep) has been given another opportunity to advance its malicious falsehood claim against Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal.

Justices of Appeal Allan Mendonca, Prakash Moosai and Andre des Vignes agreed that Cepep’s counter-claim in a defamation lawsuit filed against it by Moonilal should go to trial.

In a written decision, the judges said while the court is always cautious to permit a governmental body to sue in defamation which may suppress the right to freedom of expression, especially where the defamation claim may be funded by taxpayers’ funds, the issue on whether Cepep is a governmental body should be decided.

In 2017, Justice Ronnie Boodoosingh held that Cepep was restricted from suing a member of the public based on the principle that a government body should be open to uninhibited public criticisms. “The threat of civil legal action can have a chilling effect on the right of freedom of speech in this context especially for a company having half a billion dollars of public funds each year,” the judge said.

Moonilal’s claim for defamation was filed after Cepep issued a full-page statement in the press on August 24, 2016, alleging misappropriation of $39.6 million on construction projects in the Oropouche East constituency.

Mendonca, who wrote the decision, said it was necessary for a determination to be made on whether Cepep was a trading company with a reputation to protect despite its managing and execution of the Cepep programme.

He added that without evidence on the company’s revenue earnings from contracts, he was unable to support Boodoosingh’s conclusion that it was a government body.

On whether Cepep could maintain its claim against Moonilal for malicious falsehood, Mendonca again said he could not accept the parliamentarian’s contention that if Cepep was a governmental body, it could not.

Attorneys for Cepep held that the company was a limited liability company incorporated under the Companies Act and was not prevented from maintaining a lawsuit in libel or slander for any words which would damage its business.

Cepep’s lead counsel Elton Prescott, SC, submitted that the company could maintain a claim in malicious falsehood whether or not it was a governmental body, but Justice Boodoosingh paid no regard to its counter-claim and was wrong to strike it out.

Also appearing for Cepep ere attorneys Phillip Lamont and Farai Hove Masaisai while Larry Lalla and Vivek Lakhan-Joseph represented Moonilal.